Gata Kamsky to run for President of FIDE !!!!

LONG ISLAND, NEW YORK March 18, 2004: Speaking at their palatial estate in Long Island, New York, Roustam Kamsky revealed that his son Gata Kamsky wants to run for president of FIDE, the World Chess Federation.

Roustam Kamsky holding Sandra Sloan while fending off his Great Dane Dog Misha

This is sensational news for the world of chess, because Grandmaster Kamsky has not been seen or heard from almost since 1996 when he lost a match for the World Chess Championship to Anatoly Karpov, except that Kamsky played a three game match against Alexander Khalifman in the 1999 world event.

Kamsky said that he is not interested in playing chess again, but he wants to end the corruption in FIDE. He knows all the important personalities in the world of chess and speaks all the important languages. Everybody agrees that FIDE is corrupt. Also, the president of FIDE, Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, is in a weak position, because he was financed by Saddam Hussein and it is likely Saddam will not be in a position to finance Kirsan for some time in the future. Kirsan was supposed to have made two payments of $250,000 each this past December and January. Neither payment was made. There has been a lot of dissatisfaction with Ilyumzhinov in the past. The problem is that nobody wants to run against him and those who did run against him were bought off by Kirsan.

The Kamskys proposed that Dimitrije Bjelica, the Yugoslav Chess Journalist, be made General Secretary of FIDE. As present, the position of General Secretary is vacant. Emmanuel Omuku was fired recently, and his position is being filled by Mortan Sand of Norway, David Jarrett of England and George Makropoulos of Greece in weekly rotation. FIDE headquarters were moved from Switzerland to Greece recently.

In spite of his long absence from the world of chess, Gata Kamsky would have a good chance of defeating Kirsan Ilyumzhinov in an open election, especially since nobody else has been willing to run against Kirsan.